PLANS have been revealed for a boutique hotel and restaurant to be situated on farming grounds near Oban.
Lupi Moll has lodged the proposal with Argyll and Bute Council for the site at Ballygown Farm in Glenlonan, with the planned facility described as being “ecologically sensitive”.
The current farm building has lain vacant since 2015, while a bothy on the same site is estimated to have been empty for 40 years. The planned hotel would have nine rooms and a 20-seat single sitting restaurant.
The council’s planning officers are expected to rule on the application by late August, with the public now able to view the plans and submit feedback.
A design and access statement by Inverlonan said: “Ballygowan Farm steading currently comprises a vacant, decaying, boarded-up farmhouse (occupied as a dwelling until 2015 and vacant thereafter), a bothy (occupied as a dwelling until circa 1985 and vacant thereafter) and a cluster of three disused, and slowly crumbling, livestock barns set around a concrete courtyard.
“The steading, as a whole, is a typical example of Scottish agricultural vernacular – pitched corrugated iron roof forms, natural timber supports [and] roughhewn/natural stone and lime mortar walls.
“They are simple, easily-sourced materials of the land. The structures are at one with the land, they blend with the landscape.
“This application seeks permission, in part, to preserve and repair and, in part, to develop and enhance the steading whilst fundamentally retaining its history and its connection to the land.
“This application seeks to largely retain the current footprint of the steading and to create an essentially deconstructed hotel comprising, in the main, nine ‘rooms’ and a 20-seat, single-sitting wild dining ‘restaurant’ with a fire kitchen.”
The statement added: “Once completed, the approach to Ballygowan in the photo above will look very similar. The vernacular architecture and features will be embraced, retained and enhanced.
“The concrete pig troughs will be left untouched. Corrugated tin roofing will be replaced. Walls will be strengthened and patched with matched and local lime mortar. Internal stone walls will – calculations permitting – be left exposed where it works.
“Original oak timbers will be retained where possible – which failing they will be sourced and carved locally. There will be geo-thermal underfloor heating throughout – the heat for this and the hot water being obtained from boreholes.
“Every material used across the entire project will be responsibly and consciously sourced and with an eye to end of life recyclability.
“This application builds on all that has been achieved with the bothies. It will deliver a beating, soulful, meaningful ‘heart’ to Inverlonan and will be executed and delivered with the same love, care, ‘founded in local’, ‘attention to detail’ and ecological sustainability as the bothies have been.
“The integrity of this project as a whole is fundamental to the Inverlonan brand and is of existential importance.”
To view the plans and submit feedback, visit the council’s planning portal at argyll-bute.gov.uk and use the reference number 25/00994/PP.
